Oregon draw results are up

He had at least an inch and a half of fat on his rump. I think he was pretty tired of eating grass, the predator call brought him in on a rope!
 
Well, I went on my trip week before last to use my SW tag. Saw zero bears, zero tracks, and zero scat. The area I e-scouted was checkerboard private timberland/BLM, plenty of varied ages of clearcuts on south faces. I mapped out several different gated areas to hike into (I think 8 options).

When I got up there I realized there was a LOT of active logging in the area. Turns out only 3 of the gated roads I chose were open...that's a closed gate but open to walking in with no active logging. All of the rest were closed due to active logging. I'm thinking the active logging operations in the general area probably had the bears chased off? The hillsides also hadn't really greened up too much. Down in the river bottoms it was thick, neon green jungle, so I think the bears were probably down a little lower. I also had rain every day, nearly all day.....looked like nice sunny weather the following week, of course. I still stuck it out in the rain and put on my rain gear to hike and glass. Was really surprised not to see any bear sign at all.....even down lower I didn't see anything. I walked probably 30 miles of logging roads and glassed for hours at all times of day.

I went to a different area towards the end of the week, but the weather was just so bad I could barely even see at any distance. Pretty miserable. I ended up pulling the plug a day early. The weather forecast was just getting worse and I'd had enough nights in the wet tent.

I was pretty surprised at how barren the 4 year old clearcuts still were. Maybe they green up more as the season progresses, but there was basically nothing growing on them. I usually backpack hunt wilderness, and this was a big change....can't say I'd be very inclined to try this style of hunt again. It's the first multi-day hunt I've been on in a really long time where I didn't at least see one animal.

Pretty rough trip, but still beats the best days I have at work!
 
Saw two bears, unfortunately one while driving, the other was a bit small. Got within 50 yards of a third but I bumped it out of a dense willow patch. Found the track and it was a a little guy anyways. Lots of deer, one elk sighting, one lion. Great time in the mountains.
 

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Had a great week in the mountains—tons of wildflowers, wildlife, and sunshine! Bears seemed to be moving up out of the canyons and onto the tops as greenup happened, which made hunting a little harder than expected but we still saw bears and filled 2 of 4 tags. I killed my first turkey, too, thanks to a buddy who has a lot more experience in that department. Good luck to everyone still hunting!!
 
I have yet to connect on my tag, but I did have a lion encounter last week so my focus may be switching to the cat.

I did accompany my brother on a hunt a couple weeks back and he filled his tag.
 

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